Cercis canadensis

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis L.) is a large shrub or small tree native to eastern North America from southern Ontario, Canada south to northern Florida, United States. In the wild, Eastern redbud is a frequent native understory tree in mixed forests and hedgerows. It is also much planted as a landscape ornamental plant.

It typically grows to 8-12 m tall, with a short, often twisted trunk and spreading branches. The bark is dark in color, smooth, later scaly with ridges somewhat apparent, sometimes with maroon patches. The twigs are slender and zigzag, nearly black in color, spotted with lighter lenticels. The winter buds are tiny, rounded and dark red to chestnut in color. The leaves are alternate, simple, cordate in shape with an entire margin, 7-12 cm (3-5 inches) long and wide, thin and papery, and may be slightly hairy below.

Carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica) on redbud flowers.

The flowers are showy, light to dark pink in color, 1.5 cm (½ inch) long, appearing in clusters from March to May, on bare stems before the leaves, sometimes on the trunk itself. The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bees such as blueberry bees and carpenter bees. Short-tongued bees apparently cannot reach the nectaries. The fruit are flattened, dry, brown, pea-like pods, 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) long that contain flat, elliptical, brown seeds 6 mm (¼ inch) long, maturing in August to October.

Small tree, with a sturdy upright trunk which divides into stout branches that usually spread to form a broad flat head. Found on rich bottom lands throughout the Mississippi valley; will grow in the shade and often becomes a dense undergrowth in the forest. Very abundant in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and eastern Texas. Hardy far north; grows rapidly; is a satisfactory ornamental tree. Many trees are sterile and produce no fruit.

Bark: Red brown, with deep fissures and scaly surface. Branchlets at first lustrous brown, later become darker.

Leaves: Alternate, simple, heart-shaped or broadly ovate, two to five inches long, five to seven-nerved, chordate or truncate at the base, entire, acute. They come out of the bud folded along the line of the midrib, tawny green, when full grown become smooth, dark green above, paler beneath. In autumn they turn bright clear yellow. Petioles slender, terete, enlarged at the base. Stipules caducous.

Flowers: April, May, before and with the leaves, papilionaceous. Perfect, rose color, borne four to eight together, in fasciles which appear at the axils of the leaves or along the branch and sometimes on the trunk itself.

Fruit: Legume, slightly stipitate, unequally oblong, acute at each end. Compressed, tipped with the remnants of the style, straight on upper and curved on the lower edge. Two and a half to three inches long, rose color, full grown by midsummer, falls in early winter. Seeds ten to twelve, chestnut brown, one-fourth of an inch long; cotyledons oval, flat.[1]

In some parts of southern Appalachia, green twigs from the Eastern redbud were once used as seasoning for wild game such as venison and opossum. Because of this, in these mountain areas the Eastern redbud was, and in a few locales still is, known as the spicewood tree.